The Long History of the UAW's Failed Southern Strategy

In 1980, Nissan assumed its new U.S. plant would be unionized. Then it learned how things worked in Detroit.

By

John Schnapp

Feb. 21, 2014 6:52 p.m. ET

The election defeat by the United Automobile Workers last week at Volkswagen's three-year-old Chattanooga assembly plant had its roots in a windowless, smoke-filled Tokyo conference room in October 1980. A group of young, midlevel Nissan managers had gathered to plan what would become the first successful full-scale, foreign-owned auto plant in the United States. Nissan and other Japanese auto makers are unionized, and the Nissan managers initially expected to welcome the UAW. They came to change their minds.